Category Archives: Random

Have you ever thought about how photography impacts you? I’m not referring to the business side but the personal side. Something inspired us to pick up the camera at some point in our lives. When you used it for first time, did you already know that you would have the eye, the passion for photography? Did the desire to be behind the lens occur after seeing one of your first photos or did it evolve over time?

With apologies to our younger or newer photographers, today I am wearing a fine pair of rose tinted spectacles. They are quite an old pair of spectacles, bought, in fact in the days of film photography and their effect on me is to induce a certain amount of melancholy for the days of celluloid, chemicals and red lights, photographic red lights, I should hastily add. Join me in a trip down memory lane to revisit some of the great (and not so great) things about film photography.

By the time we’re adults, most of us have learned that mistakes are much better teachers than successes are. Mistakes engage our ingrained loss aversion. If you make the mistake of walking away from your camera bag on the sidewalk, if it’s stolen, you’ll feel the sting of losing your camera to a thief every time you set it down in public. Loss aversion is usually a stronger force in our mind than the drive to acquire. It means that, as far as our subconscious learning mind is concerned, we’ll work harder not to lose something we already have, than to work hard to get something we want, but don’t yet have.

Photographic terminology can often be confusing. It can often be perplexing, but today we are going to make it humorous by taking an alternative look at some common photographic terms and phrases. Flashgun – A light emitting battery vampire. The use of a flash gun is guaranteed to suck the life out of your double […]

Today, we are going to go a little left-field and talk about taking a holistic approach to photography. Regular readers will know that I often talk about pre-planning, particularly in travel photography but what I haven’t mentioned is that I often take an entirely unscientific and entirely random approach to shooting as well. This I like to call holistic photography. So what is holistic photography? Fans of the late author Douglas Adams will know that beyond the famous five books of his Hitchhikers Trilogy, he also wrote two books featuring Dirk Gently, a holistic detective. Dirk makes use of the the fundamental interconnectedness of all things to solve the whole crime. The slightly zany idea behind holistic photography is to use the same principle of interconnectedness to bring us to great pictures.

Valentine’s Day. Scrumptious, rich chocolates, romantic dinners and an assortment of flowers. A big day for florists, candy makers and restaurants who help couples celebrate Valentine’s Day. As photographers, we also make our own sweetness. Images of beautiful flowers. Photographs of chocolates and delectable desserts. One of the “lovely” things about Valentine’s photography is the creative perspective and use of different lenses by photographers.

Sometimes it seems like photography is just one big repository for acronyms. We buy a new lens, it is sold with OS or VR. Our cameras have very high ISO settings, even our filters can be NDs. Today, for those who don’t know their CMOS from their EVIL we are giving you a brief guide to some of the most common acronyms you might find on the buttons, dials and menus of your cameras.

New cameras are great. Whether you’re a beginner about to purchase your first “serious” camera, or an enthusiast or pro looking to make a significant body upgrade, getting a new camera is exciting. Some people will put endless hours of research into their prospective camera, while others are pretty sure what they want from the moment a new camera is introduced to the market. And then you wait. And wait. You wait with bated breath, for what seems to be an eternity, for your friendly delivery person to leave you with the coveted brown box containing your expensive new toy. You unbox it all and, just like that, everything is right with the world. If, however, one of your life’s objectives is to continue to improve as a photographer, going through the above scenario too often can be detrimental to your development. I’ll explain.

So, gazing into my crystal ball for this year, here are my predictions for 2015, based on nothing but what I read and understand from the photographic world and in no way based on any insider knowledge. Let’s start by taking a little look back at my predictions for 2014. At the beginning of the year, I suggested that apart from the D4 upgrade and a new Canon 7D MkII, there would not be much in the way of DSLR innovation. This was pretty much true, apart from the above cameras most of the new DSLRs this year were minor upgrades. The Nikon D750 was an exception to that and was quite a surprise.

A photography workshop will bring many fun and possibly even surprising benefits to photographers at all levels. In the last few months, I participated in two completely different workshops from a geographic perspective. Across both workshops, the audience included photographers with many years of film and digital experience, photographers who serve as judges in regional competitions, global photographers and those new to the craft.

“There’s a time when people say your work is revolutionary, but you have to keep being revolutionary. I can’t keep shooting pop stars all my life. You have to keep changing, keep pushing yourself, looking for the new, the unusual.”Rankin